Page 50 of Match Made In Growl

She reached for Criss's hand and held on as grief and release consumed her.

29

CRISS

They stood in the basin holding hands while the blue ward-light faded to a low, steady pulse and the morning settled into something that resembled quiet. Criss could feel the magic still moving outward through the old ward lines, carrying its grief and its release toward town, but in the basin itself the air had gone calm. Warm. Like a room after a long-held breath.

Steph's hand was small in his and gripped hard enough to whiten her knuckles. She was staring at the smooth stone where Rydan had been, her face wet, her breathing uneven.

"Tell me," she said, her eyes meeting his with intensity. "All of it. Now."

So he did.

He sat on the slab beside her and told her about the two weeks of surveillance. The clay mask and the early mornings and the recordings gathered one by one, each one a piece of a case he'd been building while she thought he was keeping his distance out of indifference. He played her the audio of Rydan discussing site destabilization. Showed her the photographs. Walked her through the timeline, from the pride meeting where he'd challenged Rydan publicly to the quiet weeks of tracking that followed.

She listened without interrupting. Her hand stayed in his the entire time.

"I couldn't tell you," he said when he'd laid out everything. "If you'd known what I was doing, Rydan would have seen it in your behavior. He was watching you, Steph. The surveillance wards, the permit games, the supply disruptions. He was tracking your every move. If you'd suddenly changed your patterns or started looking over your shoulder differently, he would have known someone tipped you off. And he would have come for you before I had enough to stop him. Well, properly that is."

"So you kept me in the dark to keep me safe."

"Yes."

"And last time you did that, I told you it was the wrong call."

"I know."

"It was still the wrong call." She said it as a fact, not in anger. Then she squeezed his hand. "But I understand why you made it."

"I watched you these last two weeks," she said. "Through Twyla's gossip and through windows and across the square. You were different. Focused. Like you'd finally found something worth being serious about."

"I did."

"The truth?"

"You."

She looked at him. Morning light caught the gold flecks in her eyes and the dust still clinging to her lashes. She didn't flinch from the word or deflect it or armour up the way she had every other time he'd gotten close to something honest. She just looked at him and let it land.

"I'm tired of lying to myself," she said. "I came here for the dig. That was true. It's important and I'm going to finish it. But somewhere in the middle of all this, it stopped being the only thing I cared about." Her jaw tightened. As if what she was about to say next could hurt her. "You matter to me, Criss. More than I planned. More than I wanted. And I'm done pretending that isn't real."

His tiger went still in the way it only did for her. Cathedral quiet.

"There's something else I need to tell you," he said. "And I need you to let me get through it before you react."

"That's a terrifying opener."

"Yeah, well." He turned to face her fully. Her hand was still in his and he held it with both of his now, her fingers threaded between his, her palm warm against his. "You're my mate, Steph. Fated. My tiger recognized you the first night at the Griddle & Grind, before I even knew your name. That's why I couldn't stay away. That's why I shifted to reach you when the ground collapsed. That's why my body finds yours before my brain makes a decision. It's not just attraction. It's a bond. Biological, magical, permanent if both people choose it."

He watched her face, braced for the shock, the anger, the accusation of yet another thing he'd hidden from her.

"I know," she said.

He blinked. "You know."

"I've known for awhile. I went to the Book Nook after the first collapse at the site, after you held me in the dark and I felt you holding something back. Lucien gave me three books on shifter bonding theory. I read all of them in one afternoon." Her mouth curved, just barely. "The Ashworth text is very thorough."

"You read a textbook about mate bonds?"